An open collection of baseball's little-known records and curiosities.

"He would have been among the league leaders in batting average for a majority of the season had he had enough plate appearances." -- 2008 St. Louis Cardinals Media Guide about non-roster invitee Mark Johnson

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Slugging Percentage is for Wussies

I've gone kind of crazy with different streaks lately and that will unapologetically continue today. A few weeks ago, I made a list of what I called Anti-DiMaggios, players with the longest streak of consecutive games played without a hit. Today features another negative streak, though not as harmful as going hitless. I've looked up all the position players who have gone at least sixty-five consecutive games without an extra base hit. Remember, for hitting streaks, a game only counts if the player gets an at-bat or sacrifice fly (pinch-hit walks don't snap them).

I thought about calling these guys the Anti-Griffey/Mattingly/Longs, after the players holding the record for consecutive games with a home run, but that doesn't quite fit (and it's pretty cumbersome). "Anti-Joneses" is an option, but how many people can identify Chipper Jones as the guy who holds the record for consecutive games with an extra base hit (more on that later)? Maybe "Swatless Swingers" would work, but it sounds pretty corny. Whatever you call them, you can't deny their lack of power.

Most Consecutive Games With Zero Extra Base Hits, 1956-2008

Rank

Name

Games

AB

Start

End

1

Greg Gross

100

156

6/5/1988

9/27/1989

2

Luis Gomez

88

198

5/29/1974

5/28/1976

3

Scott Pose

87

151

5/30/1999

9/29/2000

4

Jose Valdivielso

80

221

6/19/1960

5/30/1961

5

Manny Mota

75

75

5/26/1978

9/1/1982

6

Junior Noboa

74

111

5/27/1991

4/7/1994

7

Tom Hutton

73

86

7/5/1979

7/15/1980

8

Mike Mordecai

71

127

4/25/1997

6/16/1998

9

Dal Maxvill

69

184

4/9/1970

7/19/1970

Frank Baumholtz

69

102

4/22/1956

5/26/1957

11

Jose Oquendo

68

166

7/19/1992

6/14/1994

Wayne Tolleson

68

210

5/28/1987

6/11/1988

Denny Walling

68

113

6/15/1982

6/26/1983

14

Stan Javier

67

94

6/29/1991

5/18/1992

Larry Lintz

67

216

9/3/1974

8/26/1975

Al Weis

67

158

7/16/1965

8/17/1966

17

Manny Mota

66

71

5/26/1974

7/9/1975

Mike Fiore

66

95

5/22/1970

8/10/1971

19

Duane Kuiper

65

109

8/22/1983

9/7/1984

Marty Keough

65

90

9/27/1964

7/6/1966

Phil Gagliano

65

136

7/9/1969

5/4/1971

The longest "active" streak belongs to Orlando Palmeiro (44 games), but he's retired. The next longest current streak is 33 games belonging to Jason Wood, but he's now playing for the Marlins' AAA affiliate in Albuquerque. That means the longest active streak for a player currently on a major league roster is 31 games (through 4/21/08), belonging to Willie Bloomquist of the Mariners. Mark Sweeney of the Dodgers is right behind him at 30 games.